Gamma

Further to neville-hill comment. We can all create pics that show the versatility of TRS19, but the issue is that at some point during a 360 degree rotation, there will be total glare. In my own Routes, I can take the glare area and resolve it very well, but I have simply moved the glare to another area. I would like to suggest that you (Tony) go to any Route (ideally the one you used for your earlier screenshots), elevate your viewing height so that you can see the max draw distance and slowly rotate your field of vision through a full 360 degrees. Unless there are a lot of us who are simply "not getting it", you will eventually be looking at excessive brightness/glare/bleaching of detail ...... midday in central Australia perhaps, but not in UK! Regards. Colin (Driver_Col)
 
All these pictures have the sun behind the viewer. The problem really manifests itself when you are looking generally towards the sun (ie SW to SE in the UK).

Yes exactly what Neville said. It's easy to set up lighting when the sun is at your back. Setting up a view when facing the sun is a darn sight harder.

Correct - if you keep the 3 dials at the same setting (use the shift key to sync them), the colour will be between white and black

But you can change both ambient and sun colour to give colder or warmer colours. (Apologies to artists who can make it look much better than this - I'm just illustrating the options).

I nearly always have the blue dial leading the red and the green dials by about an eighth of a rotation. Default Trainz light has too much blue in it for most Uk locations.
 
Like PC_Ace first and Tony later shows, you can set many things for your sessions
that users have trouble, is maybe cause it lacks a good manual, instruction video
or the interface is not intuitive. (i still struggle with it somehow)


The only thing(s) that really lacks is an overall master slider = gamma
and an overall fog/mist slider
Then
-the main menu is too bright (here we can't set session adjustments)
-the internal viewer in CM has only a white background and you can't adjust the lighting
 
I've found the glare driving into the sun in Trainz unrealistic. Try as I might, I just can't achieve the same eyeball frying intensity that we get driving west late on a summer afternoon in Australia.
Edit...
Don't forget you can also adjust the settings on your monitor, some even have their own profiles and drivers. Also the default colour profile is probably incorrect for most monitors.
 
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I've found the glare driving into the sun in Trainz unrealistic. Try as I might, I just can't achieve the same eyeball frying intensity that we get driving west late on a summer afternoon in Australia.
Edit...
Don't forget you can also adjust the settings on your monitor, some even have their own profiles and drivers. Also the default colour profile is probably incorrect for most monitors.
Yes there are a number of ways to adjust lighting outside of Trainz, and that is great if one's only goal is personal pleasure. However, if the Routes are intended for "public consumption", then one must factor other users into the issue. i.e. If I cannot create a Route that looks reasonably good on any users computer, then I have to question the value of a DLS. Having said that, I also recognize the contingent of gamers who are indifferent to the finer points of any asset. Realism in those circumstances are taking second place to "gaming fun".

I think that perhaps that is where N3V should do some serious thinking about the future direction of Trainz. If they really want to encourage 3rd Party assets, and they decide that realism is an important factor in Trainz' future, then some lighting changes need to be made. Conversely, if they can manage with less 3rd Party assets, and believe the future of Trainz is little more than a fun gaming toy, then their direction will be rather different. Regards. Colin.
 
There are so many "external" monitor settings, it is questionable whether downloaders will see what you see in any event. i have a dual monitor setup on one of my systems, and it is nearly impossible to even get those to look the same. I agree with the part of your opinion that the important thing is to get the routes out there.
 
All these pictures have the sun behind the viewer. The problem really manifests itself when you are looking generally towards the sun (ie SW to SE in the UK).

Here is a screenshot looking directly into the morning sun with fog off, sun and ambient colours set to different shades of grey. Where is the glare apart from that you would expect when looking directly at the sun?

Sun-shot-with-ambient-and-sun-colours-set-to-shades-of-grey.-Early-morning.jpg
 
Here is a screenshot looking directly into the morning sun with fog off, sun and ambient colours set to different shades of grey. Where is the glare apart from that you would expect when looking directly at the sun?

Sun-shot-with-ambient-and-sun-colours-set-to-shades-of-grey.-Early-morning.jpg
I would be interested in the same view, but with the camera high enough to see (e.g.) 8000m. Thx. Colin.
 
It would be nice if we could actually save these post-processing effects, but even after all these years, since TANE came out and we were told that would be fixed at some point, that aspect seems to have been forgotten in search of more shiny and pretty things!

Anyway, I found going into the environment and resetting the environment to default first before adjusting anything else brings the lighting down to a similar to what we have in TANE and then I use that as my starting point.
 
I would be interested in the same view, but with the camera high enough to see (e.g.) 8000m. Thx. Colin.

Not sure about getting the camera to a height of 8km. The view switches to a vertical map view long before reaching that altitude. But pulling the camera back and up to a height just before it automatically switches to map view I was able to produce the following screenshots with different sun colour settings.

Gamma-Sunshot01.png


Gamma-Sunshot02.png


Gamma-Sunshot03.png
 
You can adjust everything so you can make the whole scene totally black at midday if you want.

These shots involved adjusting the 3 sky preview options. Click at the bottom, center and top of the sky preview window then adjust the sliders towards black to reduce "glare" in the sky.

I also chose a grey skybox, but you can clearly avoid any glare whatsoever looking in any direction. I hope this helps.

2021-07-28_091454.png

2021-07-28_091519.png

2021-07-28_091627.png

2021-07-28_091824.png

2021-07-28_091925.png
 
I think you are missing the point we are trying to make Tony. Your last screenshot perfectly illustrates what we are talking about, - TRS19's harsh light that has too much of the blue spectrum for natural sunlight. As for making the skybox grey we all know about that one. All my blue Summer sky layouts from earlier versions that I successfully managed to transfer to TRS19 now have grey overcast skies and look like it's about to rain soon.

I posted this picture earlier in this thread. It's from my own WIP reworked clone copy of the Cornish Mainline. No shadows (because they look rubbish unless pushed out to Ultra); No fog; Gamma 2.0; Blue dial turned back one eighth more than the Red and Green dials. (The GWR 45xx is from TS2004 with its textures and mesh material settings optimised for TRS19, - it's definitely not a PBR engine!)
Adjusting gamma is not the same as adjusting RGB or adjusting brightness.

jS3R8Di.jpg
 
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I'm sorry, but not only do I seem to be one of those who are obviously missing "the point" but I am failing to even see a point. I think that you are after something that does not yet exist in computer gaming video graphics systems - perhaps when we have 64K HD systems it may appear (but I would doubt that even that would meet all expectations).

My opinions
 
Just to clarify (my previous message), I did state a camera height that allowed a viewing distance of 8000m. I did NOT suggest a camera height of 8000m (8Km). Regardless of that, and assuming that everybody is being up front with their pics, then I am at a loss to explain what I and others are doing wrong/not doing. I have defaulted my Routes to system settings. I have played with all 3 colours with and without the Shift key. I have set extremes of light and dark and used the slider to set the lighting. I have synched the time of day .... and I still get extreme glare at a specific viewing angle. Given that I tend to build "loop" Routes, that problem angle will always be there at a certain point in the loop. The only possible difference between what I get, and what has been displayed in earlier pics is that I am loading T-ANE Routes into TRS19. I am guessing that the TRS19 pics were of Routes created in TRS19 perhaps?
 
I'm sorry, but not only do I seem to be one of those who are obviously missing "the point" but I am failing to even see a point. I think that you are after something that does not yet exist in computer gaming video graphics systems - perhaps when we have 64K HD systems it may appear (but I would doubt that even that would meet all expectations).

My opinions
What we want Mr P is a dial/button/slider that allows us to permanently adjust the gamma setting so it doesn't have to be setup from scratch every time we start up Trainz. It's not the total answer to environmental lighting problems, but it would help more than just a little.
 
When all's said and done, it's a game and needs to be easy for non technically inclined people to adjust easily, all this knob twiddling with a mouse is in many cases seemingly unproductive.

Complicated can be left for the post processing settings that would be very useful if you could actually save them? Pretty Please?
 
I just went outside in the midday winter sun and took some photos of my modest suburban backyard. Facing directly towards the sun and away from the sun.

20210728-130616.jpg


20210728-130622.jpg


Same lawn, same grass but different colours.
 
Yes my Winter time yard here in the Waikato is much the same Mr P, though a little softer because it's about to rain fairly soon. Light does change with the direction of the sun, - none of us would dispute that, - but what we don't like is the sudden harsh change in the lighting as demonstrated by Malc's screenshots and which I definitely don't see in your backyard.
I had hoped that a sensible discussion of our concerns would be possible, but already some dismissive and may I say it, elitist comments are beginning to be posted putting down those of us who aren't content with the environmental lighting as it presently stands.
 
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